TOYS. I've been in a steady relationship with "the hobby" for many years now. This blog is an attempt to rediscover MY hobby and provide motivation to paint MY toys and play MY games. The topics may wander to rugby, cricket and the x-box but feel free to skip those bit if you wish........ either of you :)

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Monday, 12 September 2016

Though in honesty these are re-paints of re-paints ad I've been rather unhappy with the original re-paints or more accurately the overdone transfers applied to them.

I'm MUCH happier with these versions. Painting as a pair I've gone for reversed schemes and kept everything much cleaner, the main detail work being the rather heavy weathering......if that makes sense.....

Neither have seen the table-top for quite sometime. I don't have a Palpatine knocking around and am still on too much of an anti-meta kick at the moment to give him a go.

Anyway I'm still claiming the Painting Points, six in total, while I move on to Victory Star Destroyers.

Tuesday, 6 September 2016

So Sunday I headed out to the BABW, Bring Another Brit to Worlds, Netrunner event at Scenario gaming pub in Stoke Newington.

In short there are a network of such events running up and down the country to raise funds to financially assist the eventual winners with costs to attend Netrunner Worlds in Minnesota. This is a fantastic thing that the Netrunner community generates for the Netrunner community, which is to be lauded.

For myself I was there primarily to support that ethos and also play a few games. For that I got an alt art Maxx card which was very pleasing.

Just as well really given that after splitting my first game I tanked like a stone. Unfortunately this was an event where the TO decided to play despite creating a Bye, pet peeve, which I collected in the final round. It was the only thing that kept me from the wooden spoon.....technically.

In honesty I didn't play that well at times though it didn't help that my Corp deck insisted on Agenda flooding me at every opportunity. During what turned out to be my final game I was sat with an entire hand of them at one point.

So once again a few lessons learned, decks tweaked and the determination to play more. I shall also be trying out a Maxx deck :)

Friday, 2 September 2016

So Thursday last week I dropped down to the Post Office early doors to pick up my great big package of Armada.

Whilst I was in town I had a bumble about, picked up a latte and strolled into WHSmith looking for potential new reading material. As is the custom I had a browse through Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames, primarily as a blast from the pass.

Back in the day (10-15 years ago) I was an avid reader always looking for the next period / theatre / scale from skirmish to Grand Armee, literally at the time, in our triumvirate gaming group.

What struck me was how much my hobby has changed since that time. I later realised that it was actually I and my circumstances that had changed and that my hobby had simply morphed in my own image. I'm sure this must be a common misconception? Back then I worked for Gee-Dub and in hindsight more than likely pursued historical gaming as a diversion from the day job, along with alternatives such as Warmachine and Hordes. That is after all the purpose of a hobby?

Moving on, employment and otherwise, in time has seen me gravitate back to my first love of sci-fi / fantasy but without without ever returning to the "scene of the crime". As with so many of us there's a LOT of games that I've played before I arrived at my "Triple Shot" that has worked pretty well for the last little while.

These days I have a couple of golden rules that seem to have pretty much written themselves;

1. Is it Fun? As simple as "do I enjoy playing it", as complex as does it have a depth of mechanic and strategy to keep me engaged and keep me coming back for more.

2. Would I go to a competitive event? By this I don't mean win but hold my own, learn etc in a positive manner. Infinity struggled for me on this front. Once you reduce your gaming circle for safety I think that's writing on the wall time.

3. Hobby, Hobby, Hobby? I'm a hobbyist before being a gamer. Can I customise through modeling, painting etc? Netrunner is an anomaly here outside of deck construction and sleeves but it's huge meta is variation in itself and playing straight out if the pack is a major strength.

It's been an interesting transformation, in hindsight. I was never much of a card gamer. A bit of Magic a long time back and then Warhammer Invasion, which I've still got, as a replacement for Fantasy. Now I can't seem myself ever not playing Netrunner and the new Cthulu Mythos card game from FFG is hugely tempting.

As a result of my gaming shift I have less opportunity for modelling and painting I do spend a lot more time actually playing games. I still find projects for myself but army painting hasn't happened in quite sometime. The introduction of a lot more boardgames has compounded this also. I kind of miss it but not badly.